TSA Gets Hosed, But KC Doesn't, Plus More Protests Planned and War Plans + Oil | 3-16-26

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1:26My favorite times of the year, yesterday to me is the unofficial start to spring on Selection Sunday. And then I wake up in its 10 degrees in Kansas City and the roads are slick and yes, be careful when you get out there this morning. There are slick spots across the Metro, but we joke about it every year. We sit here in late February, it's 65 degrees and then we get to St. Patrick's Day and it's going to be about 38 and 20 mile an hour winds tomorrow. But a bang right on time, it is, it never, never fails us. It feels like every single year. So unfortunately for a lot of people, they are on spring break across the country. You know, it's spring break around Kansas City. You got folks hitting the road, going on a trip, going to see family, whatever it might be, and the airports are a mess. Now we don't have it bad here in Kansas City. I was talking to somebody last night who works up at the airport and what they shared with me is that here in Kansas City, our security screeners were contracted through a company

2:30called VMD. So they are not TSA or federal workers. So they're still getting paid on time and they're still coming in. So we don't have the mess that has been happening in places like Houston and New Orleans and elsewhere around the country, Austin, Texas, parts of Florida, because we don't contract with TSA here in Kansas City. And there's only about 20 airports that take part in this program. Kansas City and San Francisco are two of the bigger ones. But obviously, you know, you have a mess on your hands here because you have some of the largest airports in the country that are seeing multi hour delays and you have regular people getting caught up in the nonsense and the BS that is coming out of Washington, DC. So what needs to happen before I get to this letter that was released by a lot of the major airline CEOs and they suggested this in the letter. But what needs to happen is Congress needs to get off as you know what they need to get back to work.

3:32They need to pass a bill to open up DHS Department of Homeland Security, which then will open up TSA and get these TSA workers paid. And then after that, what they need to do is make sure that they pass a bill that makes it so that TSA workers are never again impacted by one of their absurd shutdowns. It's really that simple. There's nothing else that needs to be talked about here. The fact that TSA workers are caught in the middle of government shutdowns for the second time in five or six months is such an insult to regular people because it's not just TSA workers. It is the millions of Americans, millions of Americans who are out there and are trying to go to airports, trying to enjoy their spring break, trying to get out and just blow off some steam, see some family they haven't seen in a long time, whatever it might be.

4:33They're trying to do that and these people in charge. They just keep getting in the way time and time again. Now I know, Republicans are calling it the Schumer shutdown again, the Democrat shutdown, whatever it might be. That's fine. I don't think the Republicans honestly have done a great job explaining why the Democrats are to blame for this shutdown. Listen, I get it. We know the Democrats want some, they want some changes into how ice operates. They do, but all I hear Republican saying is it's the Democrats fault, but to regular people who are not like in tune with what's going on, they see Donald Trump in the White House, they see Republicans in the Senate and they see Republicans running the house and they say, okay, give me a good answer as to why it's their fault. And I don't think the Republican party by and large has done a very good job explaining that to the American people. I don't think they've done a good job branding why it's the Democrats fault on this shutdown.

5:34You can get into the weeds on, we need 60 votes for this and we're not quite there yet and they want to, you know, rain in ice to some extent. I don't think they've sold it well at all. And the reality is most people at the airport just don't care, they don't, they're blaming the whole Shabang. Yeah, they're looking at Trump. Yeah, they're probably looking at Chuck Schumer too. They're looking at Mike Johnson and Hakeem Jeffries if they could pick him out of a lineup. It's debatable as to whether or not most people could, but they're looking at them and they're saying enough has enough guys. We are so exhausted by all of this. Now here is Adam Stahl, the deputy TSA administrator talking on Fox business over the weekend. Here's what he had to say. Now, the security integrity of the system is very much intact, but there will be impacts of course operations. We already seen, you know, elongated wait times, three for our wait times in Houston, New Orleans Atlanta and the like. And so if that is unbelievable, three to four hour wait times when you get to the airport.

6:40As if Congress could not be less popular, they're figuring out a way to become less popular. I don't think an approval rating can go into the negatives, but if it could, Congress would be right up there with the, with the best of them or the worst of them. Now this letter that was sent out over the weekend, this dropped yesterday from the CEOs from airlines and shipping companies around the country, dear members of Congress. So this is like American airline CEO. You had the Delta CEO, Jeb Blue Southwest United FedEx CEO, they're all on here. The letter reads in part, there are very few issues upon which nine out of 10 Americans agree. However, in recent polling, 93% of your constituents across the country supported paying federal aviation workers during government shutdowns. Who's the other seven percent, by the way, that's what I want to know. Furthermore, 88% of Americans said long lines and extended wait times at airport security

7:42checkpoints are likely to be repeated if TSA officers continue to work without pay during future shutdowns. Yet once again, air travel is the political football amid another government shutdown. This problem is solvable and there are solutions on the table. Now it's up to you, Congress, to move forward on bipartisan proposals that will get federal aviation workers, including TSA officers, U.S. Customs clearance officers at airports and air traffic controllers paid during shutdowns. First leaders should immediately come together to reach an agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Then, they need to act so that this problem never happens again. Specifically, Congress should pass the Aviation Funding Solvency Act, an Aviation Funding Stability Act, which would guarantee air traffic controllers are paid regardless of the government's funding status, as well as the Keep America Flying Act, which would provide the same protections to TSA officers who are tasked every day with keeping Americans secure in the skies.

8:47I have no problem with that. TSA officers on Friday just missed a paycheck. Spring break is in full swing. The World Cup is right around the corner, including here in Kansas City, and we're set to celebrate America's 250th birthday. 171 million Americans are set to fly this spring, a new record. But now we have record-weight times, a slow, painful check-in process, two, three, four hours for some people at the airport, and flights being missed all over the country. As someone who flies not with regularity, but I fly a few times a year, the flying experience is miserable enough as is. We don't need Congress and their political gamesmanship to make it even worse. And that's what we have going on right now. I do not blame these TSA agents who are calling in and saying, I'm not showing up to work today, even though it's not impacting us here in Kansas City, listen, if you leave

9:52Kansas City, you got to go somewhere else, right? And you got to get back. So that's where it can impact you just because it's not a problem here in Kansas City, because we don't contract with TSA. It can be a problem for you if you're leaving Kansas City, because you got to get back from wherever you're going. And we're right now in a spot where I don't blame TSA one bit for saying, I'm not showing up to work until these clowns in DC get their act together. I'm not doing it because it's the only leverage that they have on behalf of any of us. Them not showing up to work actually helps out the rest of us who really don't have any ability to hold these people's feet to the fire. They have way more leverage than we have. So even though it might impact us, they're actually doing the work that needs to be done. And they're the ones not getting paid. It's easy for us to sit here and say, show up to work when our paychecks cleared on Friday. There's didn't. So I have a lot of sympathy for them right now.

10:54And you know, it's exhausting. It is absolutely exhausting what these people in DC do. And they're getting paid. The politicians are getting paid. Okay, they didn't miss a paycheck. But TSA agents are, and in the end, it's regular people. It's millions of Americans and Kansas Cityans leaving or coming back from spring break, who are the ones left holding the bag and missing flights. Coming up on KCMO talk radio, clear your calendars. Okay, we got a little bit of time here, not too much time. But something is making its return to Kansas City. And you don't want to miss it coming up next. I know you can envision it right now. It's chilly. It's really cold actually. It's not just chilly this morning across Kansas City. But the third no Kings protest against President Trump is scheduled for later this month, baby. Hopefully we got some warm weather coming your way. That way all the folks can go out there and they can protest and have the time of their lives.

11:56Next Saturday, March the 28th. I was going to say, just see Friday's forecast. 82? I think we're hitting towards 80, yeah. All right, well, I have not seen next Saturday, the 28th forecast. Who knows? Yeah, exactly. I can't count on anything. You're right about that. But next Saturday will be the third no Kings official no Kings rally. I know a lot of people are kind of just wandering around on the weekends. It seems like around Kansas City. Oh, suggestions for drinks and snacks. Yeah. So there was one last June, there was one last October. And now this will be the third official no Kings protest against President Trump coming up on Saturday, March the 28th. And of course, those protests and rallies in October and June through thousands of residents in Kansas City and Lee summit and Overland Park. And now this will be the third organizers estimate more than 7,000 people were a part of the no Kings protests in October and five million people back in June.

13:00So this is going to be their third one. So they took the winter off. I mean, this is obviously carefully coordinated planned and crafted for a reason. Right. They want to create engagement and enthusiasm. And it's all optics. Let's be clear. This is political optics. So when you hear 7 million people across the country, attended a no Kings event in October. I mean, obviously, that's that's a lot of people, right. But in a country of over 300 million people, what is that? That's about 2% if that number is accurate, which I don't even know how you really estimate that number to begin with. But it's all about the optics game here. Not to say that, hey, Trump doesn't have, and his party doesn't have an uphill battle on his hands going into the midterms. They absolutely do. It does not look good for them in terms of maintaining the house of representatives.

14:02But this is all about the political football, basically. This is about having a moment, having the media, you know, wax poetic over the protests, and oh, my goodness, look at these people out there. It's a game. That's what it is. It's a PR game. And while the vast majority of these people who are going to be out there, and hey, you know what? It's America. First amendment, have fun. Do whatever you want to do. But the vast majority of people out there are going to be people who didn't like Trump anyway. Didn't vote for him. Never would haven't liked him for 10 years. Haven't voted for him at any point over the last 10 years. That's who the bulk of the participants are going to be. But it does create a narrative. I just hope. Here's my hope that we get higher quality protesters and higher quality songs than we've gotten the last couple of times. I mean, we've got to do better than this guy. Trump's a big guy.

15:02Why is that? I don't know. He's just, we don't like him. That's the word around here. Any particular reason why you don't like him? No clue at all. I'm just going with everybody else. Can we at least do better than that guy? When you put microphones in front of people in Kansas City and around the country, please, that's all that's all I'm asking. You can have your reasons. You can, you can go to your protest. Please have fun. I'm not here to stop you. But please give me a better protest for the net when you put them on camera. I see what you're saying. There's a whole incorrect incongruity there. He's coherent enough to put a sentence together. Yeah. And yet he doesn't know that wasn't a word salad. No, but he's not smart enough to figure it out. No, it was not a word salad. He got right to his point there. Right. Trump said, please, I don't really know why I'm here though. Just the word around here going with the flow. That's the word on the street, man. That's all I got. So can we do better than that? And then we, can we do better than the songs that we got during the last couple of No Kings protests?

16:03I think it's a joke. I looked at. Here we go. Here are the songs. Hey, no kings of the USA. Whoo, what does sound like to you? John has an old music guy when you hear that song. Does there some, is there something that kind of it reminds you of? Well, I'll give that one a for the effort because it beats the hey, hey, ho, ho rhyme chant. I would agree. Yes, but a coordination there from what I could hear some nice vocals. Yes, yes. The message may be lacking a little bit. I would have a nice beat and you can dance to it. Yes, that was not one of the worst songs that we've heard before during No Kings protests. There's a little rhythm to it to your point that kind of stands out to me.

17:06So I'll give him that much. I'll give him an A for effort on that. But I want something new. I don't want something that is AI generated because now so much of music can be AI generated. I want authentic. I want a little grit to it. You know, that's what I want to hear on my No Kings songs. Yeah, we may get a lesson this summer. English soccer fans are very adapted at taking current songs and using the chorus and adapting it to their needs. So we might, we might get a lesson here this. Yes, yes. That would be could you imagine No Kings pro there's, you know what John, you're giving them ideas though. There's going to be a No Kings protestor in the World Cup. There is. I guarantee you and and here's what's going to happen. There's going to be a No Kings protest probably in late June. And then you'll have a bunch of board foreigners waiting for a soccer game to be played. Saying, sure, I'll go protest Trump. That's that's and then the media is going to jump on that and say, even all the foreigners here for the World Cup are part of the No Kings protest.

18:08That's coming. You just nailed it, man. That's what's going to be happening here. Well, it'll be for Charles, no over in England. Yeah, funny because the monarchy's a little under fire over there at the moment. Well, you know what? If they start protesting our people and they're here in this country to watch the World Cup, kick them all out. There you go. All right. If you show up at a No Kings protest this summer during the World Cup, when you're visiting this country to watch a little soccer, throw them out, done, sign our see you later. You're out. We're not feeling with this anymore. Goodbye. That's that's what's got to happen if we do get there. 9134087 957. That's how you join us on KCMO talk radio on a chilly Monday morning across Kansas City. Talking about the protesters as they show up. So it gets like TDS would be like first class. Right. No, I mean, just here to protest the economy. Okay, to the right. I'm just here for the war to this you over there. Exactly right.

19:09Coming up next on KCMO. What is the latest on the world overseas? We have the details next. Well, all eyes are still, of course, overseas. 633 as we get a rolling on a Monday morning on KCMO talk radio here in Kansas City. Good morning. Stay warm. Give yourself extra time if you are getting out and going to work. There are some slick spots around Kansas City. We've got Garner in for Mark and Garner comes all the way down from St. Joe every day. So I was thinking about him and he said, yeah, you tell me Garner the roads up north. They are an absolute mess, right? Oh, yeah, there were a few places I was doing like 30 miles an hour. All right, it's slick. Well, you want to be safe out there. It's obviously worse to the north than it is to the south. But take your time, give yourself an extra few minutes this morning as you're getting up and heading to the office. So overseas, of course, it was a very active weekend for President Trump and for the United States.

20:09The number one thing that the President is trying to do is trying to figure out how to obviously wipe out the Iranian leadership. Do this while at the same time, having as little impact to our economy as possible. And that's obviously done through making sure gas prices do not continue to go up. I'm at about 329 a gallon in my area is what I saw when I was leaving this morning heading to the office. So we're over three bucks a gallon, which means, you know, if you're filling up and it was let's say 35 40 bucks, you're now probably back up to 50 55 dollars. And listen, people feel that, right? I mean, they were feeling pretty good about gas prices. Now they're like, wait, it was just 35 40 bucks. Now I'm 50 55 bucks. And I'm not sitting here and saying that you just immediately pulled back the reins on the overseas mission. However, you have to be cognizant of the politics. Now, the President is smart though.

21:10In the sense that he's not overreacting to the gas prices. He believes that he can get these prices back down over the next couple months or so. But he's got to deal with the straight of Hormuz. And over the weekend, the President was urging Beijing to help address some of the disruptions on that straight. He claims that there has been some positive response after reaching out to countries for help with securing the straight, which is of course where a lot of the oil comes out of for the rest of the world. Not so much for us, but, you know, global oil prices get impacted by what's happening there, even if it's not a huge impact for us here in the United States, but we're feeling the pinch. So he says there's been some positive response after reaching out to countries for help with securing the straight and warned that NATO faces a very bad future if allies fail to assist. Now, I like that. I like that a lot. I like the idea of the President basically saying the rest of the world needs to step up

22:14into game here. As it relates to NATO, the UN, all of these operations where a lot of these countries are free loading off of us. And just saying, yeah, you guys go do your thing there, but don't ask us for any help. No, it is time for them to step up. And this is a small way that these people can step up around the world that are supposed to allies in Europe can step to the plate and help out here a little bit. We're not asking them for much. And frankly, we should not ask them for much because I'm not quite sure how competent some of their military operations are, but when it comes to reaching out for help securing the straight, good. That's a good thing. We should want more of that. And that's what the President was in part lobbying for over the weekend. So you look at where things are at right now on the oil prices. And as of this morning, I mean, the markets open up in a couple of hours. They're down

23:15a tick. They're down less than 1% right now is where they're at. They did peak a couple hours ago. It got almost two 100 bucks a barrel. But things have been trending down over the last two hours with the markets opening up here in less than two hours at this point. So that's where we're at on that front. You got to get that straight opening up. That's what's obviously driving up the oil prices. Now when you look at what happened over the weekend as it relates to the politics of all this, the President was on Air Force one last night and he was asked about this very issue and this very thing. What about the gas prices going up and how are you going to handle this? And honestly, I think he gave the right answer here.

24:26It's kind of hard to hear the President, but that was on Air Force one last night when he's saying, I have to do ruts right. I cannot just sit here and say, well, I'm not going to take out the Iranian leadership or take out their missiles because I'm afraid of gas prices going up 50 cents a gallon, which for all the people who claim that, you know, Trump's always chickening out taco as it was called and has been dubbed and still does get dubbed to some extent. For all to talk about that and how all Trump cares about is what's happening in the upcoming election. He said last night, I can't care about that. If I think the security of this country is on the line, then I've got to do what's in the best interests of this country right now.

25:30And you know what, most politicians first off won't do it and a lot of them won't say it. And frankly, that's part of how we ended up in this mess to begin with because for too long, there's been appeasement. There's been this idea of, well, you know, I mean, people don't want it and the gas prices are going to go up and I'm not so sure that's a good thing. Now, he doesn't have a long runway here. He should be on a tight leash. But in today's news cycle, let's remember, we're on day 16 of this thing. We're two weeks in basically. All right. I mean, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on foreign policy in particular. I think that's where the president has been arguably strongest during his first term and now a second term in office. So I'll give him a little bit of runway here to work with a few weeks, a couple of months. And then you just hope like heck that this thing does not need to escalate any further. That's that's got to be the goal here. And getting the rest of the world

26:31involved is the right move at the right time. So the president saying also over the weekend, the he had asked seven countries to help police the straight of Hormuz. Trump said that for any that decline, we will remember. See, that's the kind of attitude, by the way, that we've lost. It's the attitude of we are the global superpower. We are the protector of the free world. When we ask you for something, you better damn well do it. All right. This is like your rich friend who's always buying you golf trips and buying you dinner and taking you here and flying you there on his private jet. And then when he hits you up, and he says, you know, hey, can I get some help with X wires here? You're like, oh man, I'm sorry. No, you do it. You do it because it's the right thing to do. And if you want to keep going on those fancy trips and flying on his private jet and doing all those great things when you have a

27:36friend who, let's say, is a billionaire or worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, you do it. When he asks you for a little something, you go out there and you do it and you show your appreciation once in a while, John, you pick up the tip. Exactly. Exactly. You don't leave somebody else holding the bag. You don't do it. Step to the plate once in a while. We're not asking for much here in the United States just once in a while. Now there's no pentagon press conference this morning. I thought there might be, you know, they've been doing these press conferences with Pete Hegg, Seth and General Kane. And they've been happening at about seven o'clock our time here in Kansas City. They haven't overdone it. They've done two or three a week. I thought they might do one this morning to kind of reset the news cycle with the start of the week, but they're not doing one this morning, which someone surprised me. So any updates we'll get, we'll report here on KCMO, but no press conference this morning. And I like how it's been Pete Hegg, Seth and General

28:38Kane. It has not been Trump playing commander in chief on television. Like when he was playing doctor during COVID, just put the experts up there, put the people up there that you've hired for these positions and let them do their jobs. And that's been the right way to handle these press conferences over the last couple of weeks, but there is not anything lined up for this morning, which lined up next here on KCMO is our six at six top six stories in the six o'clock hour. You do not want to miss coming up on KCMO. That'll mind people having an opinion of being like, hey, you know, I don't think that Missouri should cut its state income tax. I don't think that should happen. That's fine. That's a fine opinion to have. It's a debatable position to hold. But when local media is running this as news stories, when it's really just propaganda against certain policy, it drives me nuts. This is not news. Okay, let's be very clear. The clip I'm about to play for you at 735 in a Monday morning is not news from KSHB.

29:40It's not. It is propaganda on behalf of people who do not want to see Missouri cut its income tax, which passed the House late last week. If it gets through the Senate, Governor Kehoe will sign it. And then you would vote on it in November or earlier. That's the plan in Missouri. They want to phase out the income tax. They want to get it to zero. You got to replace those taxes, sales taxes would obviously be a big part of that. How much they have to increase those as TBD, but that would be the plan of Missouri. That's where things are trending right now. Channel 41 runs a piece here. Missouri senior citizens would be among the biggest losers if state income tax is eliminated. I want to play this for you and then explain why it's total nonsense. On the surface, it sounds like a great idea. Eliminate the state income tax,

30:41but a lot of Missouri seniors are worried about the impact they'll have on their budget if the sales tax is raised instead. Sure, I'm a senior. Yeah, so I want to fix income. That's right. Phyllis D. Senator, friend state, fit meals, laugh and learn at the Palestine senior citizens activity center in Kansas City. The show me state currently exempt social security, military income, public pensions, and a portion of IRA and 401k income from income tax. That means seniors pay little to no income tax now, but they'd be on the hook in a big way if the sales tax expands. It will mean a lot of dollars out of their pocket. The independent Missouri budget project said the proposal would actually raise net taxes on 60 to 80% of Missouri residents. It will have an impact on a majority more than a majority of people in this in the state. Tilting the tax burden away from the wealthy and onto seniors, military families, and families making less than $300,000 a year. There you go. That's 41 over the weekend. Tilting it away from the wealthy, the richer getting

31:46the big tax breaks, the average guy and the seniors getting screwed. You know, Missouri has done nothing but bend over backwards for seniors on its legislation less couple of years, including seniors being eligible to freeze their property taxes on their primary residence at 2024 levels. If you're over the age of 62, nobody else got that in the entire state. I would argue that policy has often favored senior citizens in the state of Missouri. And now they're actually proposing something that allows the workers in Missouri to keep thousands of dollars. I mean, depending on your income, obviously, thousands of dollars in income taxes changed that into more of a sales tax model. And what do you get over the weekend from 41? Oh boy, the seniors are getting screwed. Oh boy, the, the rich are getting the big tax breaks. Now, yes, is an income tax reduction or elimination going to largely benefit

32:53when it comes to the tax dollars itself. Those who make more money, yes, because they pay most to the taxes. We've talked about this on the federal level. The top 10% of earners in the country pay 90% of the income taxes in America. The top 1% of earners in this country pay nearly 50% of the income taxes generated by the federal government. That's how the system is built. But let me just throw the other side of this out there here for you. If Missouri eliminates the income tax and sales taxes go up, right? Well, who buys more stuff? Who buys more high end clothing? Who goes shopping for high end furniture? Who ends up spending a lot of money on nicer vehicles and electronics and things like

33:54that? Well, theoretically, obviously, people who make more money. They will also spend more money with this new hypothetical theoretical sales tax that's being proposed by Missouri. Then someone who's on a fixed income and is a senior citizen. So that is an inaccurate and unfair way to propose this legislation, John. Right. As a boomer, as long as my Commodore is getting my space, I'm good. Yes. Right. Yeah. I'm not out buying computers every year. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Right. You wear it out. Whatever you got, you wear it out. So it's not so much of a consumption. Sure. Food, et cetera. But not the major purchase tickets to your point. Grocery. Grocery is definitely going to be problematic because people have to eat. That is where I don't know what exactly my Keeho and the Missouri Republicans have lined up when it comes to grocery taxes. But you can't have what Kansas had up until a couple of years ago when they phased

34:55out their grocery tax. You can't have a grocery tax that's 10 11 percent. That is that is something that will get fair criticism across the state. If you're removing the income tax and then you've got people paying 10% on their groceries. That will be a fair critique that I will have if that's the road that they go down. But if it's largely retail-based, consumption-based, I mean, how many tourists, if you increase the sales tax, how many tourists that come to the lake, table rock, Ozarks, wherever it might be, are going to be footing some of that bill through increased sales taxes that you're getting from people who don't live in Missouri. Ring in the register in Branson. Please keep it coming. And I got a good Branson story. I'll get to coming up top of the hour, eight o'clock. Hang on for that one while it's in the back of my mind. But I'm listening to this thing from 41 and I'm like, you've got to be kidding me with this with this. Like it's fine to have that opinion. You don't think that Missouri should cut the income

35:56tax. But don't call that a news piece and basically run cover for Missouri politicians who don't want to see the income tax removed because that's all that piece was. That was not news. Now that being said, there's something fascinating happening right now. And the Wall Street Journal reported on this over the weekend. That red states and blue states are moving further apart as it relates to taxes. Right now, you are seeing red states race towards cutting income taxes and you're seeing blue states increase their income taxes. Last week, we talked about how the state of Washington, which has not had an income tax just imposed a 9.9% income tax on people making $1 million a year. Meantime here in Missouri, obviously, they're racing to eliminate the income tax. UF states like Arkansas, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, all lowering their

37:01individual income tax rate. Massachusetts increasing it. New York, New Jersey, California, Maryland, all increasing it. So we have a great study. I mean, in real time that is happening in America right now between red and blue states with two very different approaches, approaches happening. You have one group of states that are saying, you know what? We are going to try to eliminate the income tax and see how it plays out. We have another side saying we're going to increase our income tax rate and see how it plays out. And the beautiful part of this is, we'll know exactly who's doing it better. It's not going to happen tomorrow or next year, but we'll know probably in 10 years, a five to 10 years, who's trending in the right direction and who's trending in the wrong direction. Jonathan's in Kansas City on KCMO. What's up, Jonathan? Yeah, I mean, you kind of make a good point. It's like, you know, people at different income levels, they can spend different amounts of money. But even within the same income level, I can

38:02make different decisions about, you know, about how much I'm going to spend or how little I'm going to spend. And also, you know, I can try to get things cheaper, go secondhand market, I can go to the Kansas side. And by the way, your point on the Washington income tax, oh, it's only going to apply to the top, you know, income type earners. When they introduced the federal income tax 100 years ago, only the top 2% had to file. They said, hey, it's going to be a very limited tax. Now everybody files. So that that's going to be the, that's going to be the camel's nose under the tent. We'll see where they go from once they introduced it. That's a good point there, Jonathan. You're right. They never, they, well, they rarely thank you ever cut it to your point. They'll start it off in a place like Washington, just for those making a million. Then it'll be half a million. Then it'll be 200,000 million. Yeah, we went a million divided by two, right? That's where it's going to trend. That's exactly where it's going to trend. You're right. Good call.

39:07Coming up the good, the bad and the ugly from the weekend, we will get to that right here on KCMO talk radio Oscars were on last night. 98 Oscars, I believe it was. We had it on in the background for probably 60 to 90 minutes. After all the NCAA tournament stuff last night, kids go to bed, pop it on. And I continue to be amazed at what little I know about the movie industry today. And you know, I just don't go to movies unless it's for the kids or with the kids. And that's just kind of the phase of life I'm in. So movies are not a big part of what I'm doing right now. And that that's okay. I mean, it's a phase of life, right? That's all it is, John. Well, fortunately, you're not as deep in the phase as I was at the same period of time in my life, where I walked by Ray Leodia, Adam Smuck in the bar and go, who is that guy? I would not walk by Ray Leodia, RIP and make that mistake you made in the late 80s. But at that time, I was raising kids too and wasn't out as much. But still, yeah, Ray Leod is right. That's exactly right. So I didn't

40:11think it was hyper political last night. I mean, I watched it. And even on social media, there's not a lot of clips where people are like outraged over something. Conan O'Brien or somebody said, there's actually some good stuff that came out of some of the things from last night. They'll get to here in a second. But last night's big winner was one battle after another. That was last night's champion taking home six trophies from 13 different nominations, including best picture. So here's what was interesting, though. I saw this, the inclusion standards for best picture that began in 2024. They announced these, of course, in 2020 when the world went nuts, and they're still in place for the Oscars. To win best picture, you have to meet the following inclusion criteria to be considered. A film must meet at least two standards across four categories on screen representation themes and narratives, creative leadership and project industry access and opportunities and audience development within each category are a variety of

41:12criteria. According to the Academy, the racial or ethnic groups that are acceptable as underrepresented racial groups include actors that are Asian, Hispanic or Latins, Black African American, Indigenous Native American, Alaskan Native, Middle Eastern, North African, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. Step one, the 30% of all actors in secondary or more minor roles must come from these groups, women, racial or ethnic group, LGBTQ plus, people with cognitive or physical disabilities, or who are deaf or hard of hearing. The main storyline and subject matter must revolve around one of these groups, women, racial or ethnic groups, LGBTQ plus, or people with cognitive or physical disabilities, or who are deaf or hard of hearing. So you have to check off a couple of those boxes to qualify. It's amazing. The last one, can anybody pass? Are you hard to

42:17hearing? What? That was an easy one to put on your card, right? You know what? Whoever made this list was not a director trying to deal with a bunch of deaf people running a movie. Oh my goodness. So anyway, just to give you an example of some of the movies that would not have one best picture under these now current guidelines, Godfather. Too many Italians. Brave hearts would not have one. No country for old men, three of the movies that would not have one best picture under these guidelines. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Unbelievable. What the Oscars has done to itself. And you wonder why it just doesn't have the juice that it had 30 years ago. I mean, I enjoy seeing Billy Crystal. And I'm looking at these people and I'm like the people that I wanted to see 30 years ago are the same people I want to see today, but they're all 30 years old. They're Billy's pushing 80 years old. Leonardo DiCaprio is growing a mustache trying to look like Travis

43:20Kelsey's killing me here. They can't make a movie today like they used to be too long of the credits right at the beginning. This movie contains smoking, swearing, beating on the highway. Explosions, loud noises. It's so true, John. Let me give you this Jesse Buckley winning last night. And here is part of what she had to say when she won best actress for Hamnet. It's not all crazy in Hollywood. You Fred, I love you, man. I love you. You're the most incredible dad. You're my best friend. And I want to have 20,000 more babies with you. I do. I do. And I love my little girl who is eight months who has absolutely no idea what's going on. And it's probably dreaming of milk. But this is kind of a big deal. And I love you. And I love being your mom. And I can't wait to discover life beside you. That right there, Jesse Buckley winning best actress.

44:23She goes on the say quote, I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother's heart. It's nice to hear that in Hollywood. Marriages not a trap. Babies are not burdens. And motherhood is the greatest gift ever, ever. Same for fatherhood, but in her case motherhood. How about that? Keatsman is coming up next. I'm Adam Devine, chief fundraiser for Children's Miracle Network. We'll fund it up. It'd better be fun. Have you ever wondered how our network actually works? I wonder no more. With the support of partnering businesses and individual donors, we help raise crucial funds for 170 children's hospitals across the United States and Canada. Hospitals that provide life-changing care for all kids. Visit us online at cmm.org.